At #PortadaMx: Arena and Volaris Delve into the Do’s and Dont’s of Social Advertising

Juliana Sarria, CSL of Strategy and Product at Arena, and Ricardo Rivera, Head of Marketing of Volaris, spoke at the fifth edition of Portada's annual Foro Mexico de Publicidad y Medios (#PortadaMX ) about the very quickly growing sector of social advertising. Both executives shared their strategies for social ads, explained the challenges they are facing and talked about how corporate organizations need to adjust to take full advantage of social marketing.

By Ximena Cassab and translated by Celeste Martorana

"Social Media is the ecosystem that brings it all together. A brand that is not in Social Media, it's almost as if it doesn’t exist at all," said Juliana Sarria, CSL of Strategy and Product at Arena.
Both Sarria and Rivera agreed that in order to really take advantage of social networking it is necessary to know what audiences want and how to publish the right messages to reach them. A key fact is that Social ads can be measured noted Ricardo Rivera, Head of Marketing at Volaris. Even the emotions a message originates in a user can be measured. But, Rivera cautioned: "companies need to exploit these tools much more through trial and error and experiment with the content of social ad messages."

Companies need to exploit these measuring tools much more through trial and error of social ads.

Key Questions that were answered

How is the conversion from social advertising to the actual purchase (e-commerce)?

Juliana Sarria: "Mexicans still feel uncomfortable with e-commerce. Social media and e-commerce try to make the user feel more comfortable in the digital environment. Social ads' main role is to close the distance between the online shopping experience (point of purchase) and the consumer. However, you need to understand. A user is simply not going to jump from information posted on a social network to right away purchase a product online.”

Ricardo Rivera: "At Volaris, 87% of our followers in social networks are there to learn about special promotions. Of these 87%, 54% are only interested in promotions and not in any other information. The travel industry is an industry where people will ask you about products. The connection with e-commerce is crucial. But it is necessary to study what behaviour the user has until he/she makes the purchase."

At Volaris, we have had tweets that have generated one million dollars in purchases.

How can valuable content for social network users be generated?

Juliana Sarria: "If we're going to bomb users with information, we must do so with valuable content. The problem is that most companies have very young people working as community managers. They lack the necessary experience and have no knowledge of how to act during a crisis. The person in charge of a company's communication over social networks should be prepared to face those situations and more. They are the voice of the brand. The reality is that good content is related to high costs. The potential of the data, technology and content will become enormous if you provide specialized and targeted content to the end-user."

Ricardo Rivera: "Brands have to take advantage of the fact that they can say something relevant in a conversation. For example, if a flight is delayed, you can give notice through social networks, or through an app. We have noticed passengers turn on their mobiles immediately after the plane has landed. They can be targeted with special messages. Social messaging is huge for the travel industry."

What do brands need to leverage the data and content generated in social networks?Ricardo Rivera: "We need attribution managers, managers who are responsible for their areas specifically and in charge of analyzing the exchange of information between social networks, websites and e-commerce pages. Brands need to further analyze users so as to find out what they like and we need a trained and skilled team to do this.We need to rethink the traditional structure of a company and create new job titles, such as as Head of Engagement. "

Juliana Sarria: "We need clients to trust their agencies and share the data with the agency. The data needs to be shared so that it can be analyzed at the right time."

Each fall, the USHCC hosts the country’s largest gathering of Hispanic business leaders: The USHCC National Convention. The Convention is held every year in a city that embodies the American entrepreneurial spirit and supports a thriving small business community.

With more than 2 billion active users worldwide, and 80 million monthly active users in Mexico alone, the social media giant is boosting revenue at a faster pace than expected. An important part of Facebook's efforts and investments are going into the creation of a major video advertising platform.